Raleigh water wasted 30 million gallons of water a day for 60 days , OUTDOOR WATERING! (Cary: homes)

[urbywan]

Yep, for 60 days july and august and early september while we were in some of the hottest weather in years with little rain, homeowners were using 70 million gallons of water a day. Watering during the heat of the day when it was 100 degrees, watering lawns every day doing wasteful stupid things to try and keep the grass green. That is a total of 1.8 Billion gallons wasted.

That is a major reason we are in the situation we are in with falls lake. even with that big rain it rose only 1 foot!!! There are major water issues that the politicians are unable to address thru lack of knowledge, Time to stop the building until a more reliable source of water is found or developed. I have seen today in areas of raleigh where people are still watering lawns!!! People are pretty dumb!

[Tryingtofigureitout]

This may mean no watering for atleast six months or a year?

I have been involved in several projects that involve gathering water table data for consecutive years on sites across the state. We are not in a '07 drought. We are in a ten year drought!

The surficial water table has been depleted for atleast 5 years that I can personally testify. In Apex alone, I saw the water table drop 15' and it never rebounded.

[urbywan]

Originally Posted by Tryingtofigureitout

This may mean no watering for atleast six months or a year?

I have been involved in several projects that involve gathering water table data for consecutive years on sites across the state. We are not in a '07 drought. We are in a ten year drought!

The surficial water table has been depleted for atleast 5 years that I can personally testify. In Apex alone, I saw the water table drop 15' and it never rebounded.

But you have guys like realtors that think water is everyplace.

These guys have no idea what is happening.

[toot68]

Originally Posted by urbywan

Yep, for 60 days july and august and early september while we were in some of the hottest weather in years with little rain, homeowners were using 70 million gallons of water a day. Watering during the heat of the day when it was 100 degrees, watering lawns every day doing wasteful stupid things to try and keep the grass green. That is a total of 1.8 Billion gallons wasted.

That is a major reason we are in the situation we are in with falls lake. even with that big rain it rose only 1 foot!!! There are major water issues that the politicians are unable to address thru lack of knowledge, Time to stop the building until a more reliable source of water is found or developed. I have seen today in areas of raleigh where people are still watering lawns!!! People are pretty dumb!

So I take it that the outdoor usage accounts for 30 million/day out of 70 million total? 40%?

[urbywan]

Originally Posted by toot68

So I take it that the outdoor usage accounts for 30 million/day out of 70 million total? 40%?

It just might!! Heck I ran at 4am today and FOOLS are watering their lawns out here in southern wake county! I counted 9 homes with sprinklers going this morning! Not one lawn needs or should be watered today, we had 6+ inches of rain thru Saturday morning!!!!!! Stupid people!

[RaleighBoundGeek]

..and I assume, you picked up the phone and DID something about the fools, right?

[OmegaBaby]

Originally Posted by urbywan

Yep, for 60 days july and august and early september while we were in some of the hottest weather in years with little rain, homeowners were using 70 million gallons of water a day. Watering during the heat of the day when it was 100 degrees, watering lawns every day doing wasteful stupid things to try and keep the grass green. That is a total of 1.8 Billion gallons wasted.

That is a major reason we are in the situation we are in with falls lake. even with that big rain it rose only 1 foot!!! There are major water issues that the politicians are unable to address thru lack of knowledge, Time to stop the building until a more reliable source of water is found or developed. I have seen today in areas of raleigh where people are still watering lawns!!! People are pretty dumb!

The entire state is strapped for water. Should the entire state stop building? Pretty much the entire southeast US is strapped for water. Maybe the entire southeast should stop building? It seems to me like Raleigh is better positioned than many other parts of the state and country. Given the *huge* waste of water, Raleigh still has plenty of water (you're not eating off paper plates yet, right?). Raleigh doesn't even have mandatory year-round restrictions. So it seems to me that the water supply is perfectly adequate, and that all we need to do is reduce the waste (like implementing year-round watering restrictions like Cary, which is highly likely to happen anyway).

Also, I wouldn't exactly say that the 1.8 billion gallons were entirely wasted. Much of that water soaked into the ground and recharged the aquafers, which made the streams flow more consistently, which flowed right back into the rivers and reservoirs.
Same goes for water that splashes on roads and goes down sewer drains. That water doesn't just disappear. It goes to the water treatement plant, and then back into the river. When that occurs, the only thing really wasted is the labor that it took to turn the water potable.